Roll 'Em Up with Pumpkin

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Fall is my favorite time of the year. I love when it's just cold enough to wear a jacket, but warm enough that a sweater and a brisk pace are all you need to be comfy. I love breaking out my boots (all dozen+ pairs of them....Dad, don't freak out!). I love switching over my closet and feeling like I'm going shopping among all the new clothes. And I LOVE cooking with fall flavors....cinnamon and spices and PUMPKIN, oh my!

(Editor's note: keep in mind that a snow storm in November is not my definition of a fun fall, but hey - at least it's not 90 degrees anymore!)

I've told you before about my love for pumpkin. It goes back a long way - pumpkin pie has been my dad's birthday cake every year since long before I was in the picture, and I'm pretty confident that I've been eating at least the filling out of them since I was started on solid foods. I've played with pumpkin before in different recipes too; I came up with this Pumpkin Praline Bread Pudding and this Pumpkin Pasta a few years ago. And when my parents came to visit me in NYC a few weeks ago over my father's birthday weekend, I tried out this new Pumpkin Chiffon Torte that I WISH I had come up with on my own - never will I go back to boring (and not-so-tasty) pareve pumpkin pie again! (If you love pumpkin pie, please do yourself a favor and try this one out. It was light, fluffy, pumpkin-y, and perfect!)

Every day when I scour Pinterest, I see recipes for pumpkin cinnamon buns. You take two of my favorite dishes and combine them - how bad can that be? But all of the recipes call for made-from-scratch pumpkin dough and, to be honest, I don't have the patience....and I'm way too lazy. (Though I did successfully make really delicious cinnamon apple-filled challahs from scratch for Rosh Hashana....I just decided what my next blog post will be :-)) So, I wanted something that would allow me to resort back to my tried-and-true recipe for cinnamon buns, in which I use defrosted Kinneret Challah dough. I figured that if I knead some pumpkin pie spice into the dough, and then slathered it with a spiced pumpkin mixture, I'd hit the nail on the head. And, surprise, surprise - it worked! The pumpkin gets all gooey and caramel-y because of all the brown sugar and margarine that it's rolled with, and the dough had the perfect amount of spice to compliment the filling. Plus, they stay moist for days because of the pumpkin rolled up in there.

I also wanted to experiment with a glaze. (Lately, when I made cinnamon buns, I create a sort-of caramel sauce that I pour on the bottom of the pan before I put the unbaked buns in....and then I invert the buns when I serve them so that they're dripping with sauce. Mouth. Watering. Yum. Need to blog that update to the original recipe soon!) I could have definitely created something with powdered sugar and pareve milk, but there's a product in the supermarket that's been calling my name for months now and I figured this was the perfect opportunity to try it. Duncan Hines has a new line of frostings called Flavor Creations, where you buy a "blank slate" container of frosting and then add one of their flavors in. There are a million to choose from: apple pie, bubblegum, chocolate marshmallow, mocha, orange cream...they even have a pumpkin spice flavor (which I couldn't find in my local grocery store). And, best of all, unlike many of the other frosting varieties, they're pareve. (Knock on wood; I'm sure one of these days I'll go to pick one up and see that little OU-D that makes me want to scream sometimes!) So, I settled on the cinnamon roll flavor. I frosted the cinnamon buns with about half of the frosting when they came out of the oven - just to keep them moist. And then when I was ready to serve them, I heated the buns up and then iced them with the rest of the frosting. It starts to melt and get oozy and it is so delicious. And bonus: the apartment smelled amazing!

Pumpkin Cinnamon Buns

1 Kinneret Challah dough
3 tsp pumpkin pie spice, divided
3/4 cup (about half of a 15-oz. can) pumpkin puree
3 tbsp. margarine
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 container Duncan Hines Frosting Creations + cinnamon spice flavor packet

1. Defrost challah dough
2. In a separate bowl, beat pumpkin puree and margarine until smooth with a mixer. In another bowl, mix together 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice.
3. Knead 2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice into the dough; roll out into rectangle, approximately 12" wide x 8" tall.
4. Spread the pumpkin puree mixture onto the dough in a thin layer; be sure to leave a 3/4" rim of dough around the pumpkin.
5. Sprinkle the sugar mixture evenly over the pumpkin puree and press down lightly.
6. Roll the dough into a log from the bottom up. Cut the log into 12 equal slices and place cut-side down into a round cake pan.
7. Ccover with a damp cloth and allow the buns to rise on the counter for 4-6 hours. (Or, at this point, you can cover the buns with aluminum foil and refrigerate the buns overnight. Then remove them from the fridge, cover them with a damp cloth, allow to rise 4-6 hours, and continue below.)
8. Bake uncovered at 350 for 35 minutes, or until golden brown. (If the buns begin to get too brown, cover them with aluminum foil.)
9. While the buns are baking, mix frosting and cinnamon flavor packet according to the directions. (Or, if you cannot find this particular frosting, mix one container of vanilla or cream cheese frosting with either 1 tsp. of cinnamon extract or 2 tsp. of cinnamon.)
10. Remove the buns from the oven and immediately spread a thin layer of frosting on them to keep moist.
11. To serve: warm the buns up and spread with more frosting.
12. Devour